‘The Metaphysics of War’ by Julius Evola (Integral Tradition Publishing, 2007))

Collected from essays published in various political journals between 1935-1950 - therefore covering the period of Italian Fascism’s ossification into authoritarian pro-Nazi regime and the occupation of Italy by Allied forces – this work, despite its emphasis on metaphysics and comparative mythology, has a primarily political and practical orientation. The main thesis is that war was previously viewed by all cultures as metaphysical struggle between "good" and "evil" played out on the human plane, elevating material loss to sacrificial offering and the actors themselves to divine agents. This is where the practical thrust comes to the fore; if "holy war" was this, then industrialised "total war" can be so again. In this Evola comes close to the thinking of Georges Sorel and German contemporary Ernst Juenger. Indeed, Evola says that war viewed as trial and purification can function in the place of structures of initiation now lost to us, and may even be more suited to the current "Iron Age".

A striking feature of this work is that although aimed at the Fascist soldiers of his day, with a clearly didactic and practical aim, a distance is kept from both his own personal experiences in World War One and polemic remarks on the course of Fascism itself. It would be impossible for a reader without the dates of publication to hand to guess which essays were written during the war and which after it had already been lost.

This raises questions as to how much relativity and detachment can be realistically kept from modern politics. Although voicing fundamental objections to Italian Fascism, Evola obviously thinks it functioned as a suitable vehicle for transforming the young men of his day into "Super-Fascists" or "Men of Tradition", but what would his advice have been to young men in England and America? Could they have achieved a similar level of initiation fighting for the Allied side? If the human level of war is relative, then the logical conclusion would be yes. How can war function for young men today, when every national army in Europe is a mercenary police-force for a capitalist new class? Are horizons of Initiation still available in Iraq and Afghanistan?

So this book raises pertinent questions that need to be considered, but most importantly conveys a message that the traditional forms of life are not entirely lost. God has not entirety withdrawn and never can so long as men orientate themselves in the correct way, with one foot in the future and one foot firmly in the past.